77b. Rule of Dumb

I'm not really sure if Patrick's jerkyness was really justified here. In IWS it really wasn't but in here you could probably say the crown but that's what makes this episode kind of mixed. But the fact that the comedy lacks as well as just seeing jerky Patrick brings this episode down a bit. 3/10
 
I'm in the minority here, but I absolutely adore this episode. Unlike Driven to Tears this episode is funny enough to make up for Patrick's jerkiness and other than Patrick stealing that fish's comic book collection (Which I don't think was played for laughs and is more of a way of showing how far Patrick is taking this whole king stuff.) I didn't really have that much of a problem with him. What also makes this episode much more better than most of the episodes where Patrick is a jerk is because everyone calls out Patrick for what he is doing. Even his best friend SpongeBob near the end of the episode decides that he does not want to be his servant. Then Patrick realizes that what he's done was wrong and that the power of being a king was turning him into a jerk. Now this episode does have a lot of great jokes like Patrick talking to himself in the mirror, Squidward's reaction to finding out that Patrick is the king and him trying to eat the crown. It's not a perfect episode although it is close to being one and it's just a really underrated episode. 9/10
 
Season: 4

Episode: Rule of Dumb

This episode was very decent. The plot was nice. Patrick was kinda jerkish here, but he was drunk with power so it didn't bother me that much. There were some funny jokes. 6.5/10
 
Not only did this episode make Patrick look like a massive jerk but it may have skewed people's opinion of royals to a bad opinion.

3/10
 
Unlike "Driven to Tears" this episode lacks humor and Patrick' behavior is really mean and uncomfortable. However I do like the story and the conflict Patrick faces and how he realizes he's a jerk.

6/10
 
Patrick was a jerk in this one, but this was really funny to tell the truth, again like its sister episode: Driven to Tears, excellent visuals and clever writing as usual. 9.5/10
 
The episode was ok, I love episodes with Royalty vibes, yes, Patrick was being a jerk, well Kings can be such jerks :P also that twist though. 8/10
 
Episode: Rule of Dumb (S4-E77-B)

Meh. I don't like Patrick's jerkish and greedy attitude, but on the bright side, Patrick reflects on his reflection on what he have done.

Final Score = 5/10
 
I didn't like this one. Patrick's jerkiness here is worse than in Driven to Tears, it isn't funny, and it also has the comic book scene. I can't stand that scene. It's not the worst episode this season, but it's far from the best.

Ranking so far:
1. Dunces and Dragons (A+)
2. Mrs. Puff, You're Fired (A+)
3. Krusty Towers (A+)
4. The Lost Mattress (A)
5. Fear of a Krabby Patty (A)
6. Bummer Vacation (A)
7. Skill Crane (A)
8. Wishing You Well (A)
9. Patrick SmartPants (A)
10. Have You Seen This Snail? (A)
11. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture (B)
12. Ghost Host (B)
13. Once Bitten (B)
14. Krabs vs. Plankton (B)
15. Chimps Ahoy (B)
16. Selling Out (B)
17. Squidtastic Voyage (B)
18. New Leaf (B)
19. That's No Lady (C)
20. Enemy In-Law (C)
21. Driven to Tears (C)
22. Shell of a Man (C)
23. Whale of a Birthday (C)
24. SquidBob TentaclePants (C)
25. Hocus Pocus (D)
26. Funny Pants (D)
27. Karate Island (D)
28. Rule of Dumb (D)
29. Good Neighbors (E)
30. Wigstruck (E)
31. The Thing (F)
32. All That Glitters (F)
 
Meh. It's got an interesting plot, but it lacks humor and Patrick is kinda unlikeable. I don't think he's as bad as he would be in later episodes, but I'm still just not a big fan of this side of him. I like the atmosphere and the resolution, but that's really it.

Average episode (5/10)

1. Dunces and Dragons (10)
2. Krusty Towers (10)
3. Have You Seen This Snail? (9)
4. Wishing You Well (9)
5. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture (8)
6. Fear of a Krabby Patty (8)
7. Krabs vs. Plankton (8)
8. Patrick Smartpants (8)
9. Selling Out (8)
10. Shell of a Man (7)
11. The Lost Mattress (7)
12. Mrs. Puff, You're Fired (7)
13. Squidtastic Voyage (7)
14. Karate Island (7)
15. Bummer Vacation (7)
16. Enemy-In-Law (7)
17. Skill Crane (7)
18. That's No Lady (7)
19. Chimps Ahoy (6)
20. Driven to Tears (6)
21. Funny Pants (6)
22. Hocus Pocus (6)
23. Once Bitten (6)
24. Whale of a Birthday (6)
25. Squidbob Tentaclepants (5)
26. New Leaf (5)
27. Rule of Dumb (5)
28. Ghost Host (5)
29. Wigstruck (4)
30. Good Neighbors (4)
31. The Thing (4)
32. All That Glitters (3)
 
I mean i am toats magoats extremely neutral with this episode its practically a mixed bag for me. One part of me thinks this episode is funny and fun while the other half of me thinks its very mean-spirited.

Rating: Meh Episode


Rankings:
Patrick SmartPants (Perfect)
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI The Motion Picture (Perfect)
Bummer Vacation (Amazing!)
Wishing You Well (Amazing!)
Krusty Towers (Amazing!)
Dunces and Dragons (Amazing!)
Once Bitten (Great)
Enemy In-Law (Great)
Wigstruck (Great)
Krabs Vs. Plankton (Great)
Have you Seen this Snail? (Great)
Shell of a Man (Great)
The Thing (Great)
Selling Out (Great)
That's No Lady (Great)
Squidtastic Voyage (Great)
Chimps Ahoy (Great)
Karate Island (Great)
SquidBob TentaclePants (Great)
Whale of a Birthday (Great)
Hocus Pocus (Okay)
The Lost Mattress (Okay)
Funny Pants (Meh)
Rule of Dumb (Meh)
Skill Crane (Meh)
Mrs. Puff Your'e Fired (Bad)
Fear of a Krabby Patty (bad)
New Leaf (Bad)
Ghost Host (Bad)
Driven to Tears (Bad)
Good Neighbors (Terrible)
All That Glitters (Terrible)
 
Coming up next, we've got "Rule of Dumb", an episode that is criticized similarly to "Driven to Tears" because of Patrick's behavior. It's funny that the general critiques are so similar, because I like this episode a whole lot more than I liked that one. And that's because of a few things—this episode is actually funny and interesting being the main contenders, but also Patrick is not actually as insufferable in this episode. He's a jerkwad, absolutely, but they play it up to an actually comedic effect. And also maybe it helps that Patrick actually reflected on his behavior. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's get into the nitty-gritty of this thing.

This episode gets right into it with the Minister knocking on Patrick's rock and Patrick immediately freaking out for reasons unknown. And then we cut to SpongeBob and Gary, which you already know what I'm gonna say about that, and this episode doesn't let up in the plot for a second as Patrick immediately bursts through the TV. Now that's what I call getting an episode rolling! And I love that Patrick assumes the Minister is from the library and knows about his overdue books. Patrick even getting books from the library is funny in itself. It's also kind of funny to me that we have this library mix-up because I myself am going to the library later today to return some books. They're not overdue though lol. Anyway, I like how Patrick immediately starts burning books including a How To Read book, like what is this, Fahrenheit 451? And I thought it was funny how the real horror of jail is the "small portion meals" for Patrick. I just wrote so much about less than a minute of this episode, oh boy. But it's a really funny set up that gets me interested and hooked immediately. Kind of feels like "That's No Lady" or "I'm With Stupid". Except one of those goes on to be a pretty good episode, while the other does...not.

The comedy tones down a bit as we get some exposition, which isn't a norm in SpongeBob SquarePants, but it makes sense for this episode as the whole plot is that Patrick is royalty, and we need some kind of reasoning for that. Another thing I like about this set up is that Patrick doesn't start acting like a jerk for no reason, unlike some episodes (*cough cough* this episode's sister *cough*). What SpongeBob says about Patrick being able to get anything he wants has a predictable yet entertaining effect as Patrick starts to abuse his lowkey non-existent power (I mean Patrick's just royalty in name only. How did it take this long to say he was royalty? What about his clearly alive parents? Though I guess in this episode's sister episode they did make a joke about Patrick thinking he was an orphan so who knows. Maybe that was a set up for this episode lmao). Anyway, I have questions about how this royalty thing works if King Neptune exists? You already know I overthink SpongeBob SquarePants, it's what I do.

Anyway, starting with the scene at the Krusty Krab, we see Patrick become more and more of a jerk as he gains an entitled attitude. There's something about Bill Fagerbakke's delivery in Patrick's jerk moments that make those moments either super humorous or super annoying. I'm not sure what it is, but whatever it is, that's talent right there. Also the subtle joke about Mr. Krabs trying to marry Pearl off is so bad yet funny. And then I love how Mr. Krabs is all about capitalism, but anti-monarchy lmao. You already know I love to make things more complicated than they are, just roll with it. And then Patrick starts literally taking things from people, which is an a-hole move to be sure, but I don't find myself very annoyed by it. I'm trying to figure out and articulate what exactly separates Patrick's behavior in this episode from "Driven to Tears", and I can't seem to put my finger on it. Maybe it's because in that episode he was saying all sorts of slick comments to one character in particular, not to mention that character being his supposed best friend that he began the episode supporting, and in this episode his jerkish behavior is towards everyone he comes across, and it's only at the climax of the whole thing that he's a real jerk to SpongeBob rather than just brusque. That's the explanation I'm going with, anyway. It also helps immensely that in some of these jerk moments Patrick is pretty amusing or funny. Like I love the delivery on "was my bestest friend lying to me?" and I thought the "Life isn't fair, pal. Get used to it" bit was funny.

Then Patrick does his worst action yet, steal a comic book collection someone had been working towards their whole life, and we see a montage of Patrick abusing his power. Even though SpongeBob has concerns, he's still there to support his best buddy, which is very in-character. Also I liked how the montage ended with that TV bit, I thought that was entertaining. And then we cut to Squidward, who we hadn't seen any of yet, whose entrance is going to shake this episode up a bit. And by that I mean get a new part of the plot moving, change up some dynamics, not make anything worse. And Squidward is just hilarious here, particularly once his house is moved and he reacts to that. And then Squidward pulls a fantastic PG version of the French Revolution (kidding! kidding. only because it was not toppling the monarchy but toppling the king.) by galvanizing all the people who are being forced by Patrick into doing all this stuff for him. I love Squidward's excitement in seeing people start to agree with him. And I kind of love that this episode has a bit of a role reversal with us rooting for Squidward with no caveats at all. I mean, at the end of the day I root for SpongeBob 99% of the time, so it's not exactly a role reversal since I don't actually root for Patrick all that much (since he doesn't typically have goals in an episode, more a supporting role). Anyway, I love how completely done Squidward is with this whole situation. The part where SpongeBob tries to get him to sign a treaty is hilarious.

And then we get to probably the best bit of the episode, where Patrick begins legitimately losing it. I love how even SpongeBob has to jump ship at this point. And although he doesn't yell at Patrick or anything, I do like that SpongeBob calls him out as well as reminds Patrick that he has his own life to get back to. And then once SpongeBob leaves Patrick starts really losing it. The mirror scene is great and very unexpected for a show like SpongeBob SquarePants. Again, we all love the comedy, but sometimes I think no one talks about the actually good writing. And yes, a mirror is one of the most basic symbolism things you can use, but I can still praise it when it's done well, can't I? And then it is at this point that Patrick realizes that he's become a horrible person, and runs to give the crown back to the Minister.

Here, we have one of my favorite endings, for reasons you can probably guess. Because turns out Patrick isn't royalty after all anyway. You know who is? The one, the only, Gary the Snail. That's right, my boy is royalty! And I love the very end of the episode, where he gets his crown, and looks satisfied. As he should. As he should.

"Rule of Dumb" is a really great episode, in my opinion. I've already explained at length why I don't find anything to be very annoying in this episode, and why I find it to be pretty funny and well-written. It doesn't have the "wow" factor that would push it into "Amazing", but it's definitely a worthy contender for my "Great" tier.

Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.3/10
 
Pugs4Thugs said:
Coming up next, we've got "Rule of Dumb", an episode that is criticized similarly to "Driven to Tears" because of Patrick's behavior. It's funny that the general critiques are so similar, because I like this episode a whole lot more than I liked that one. And that's because of a few things—this episode is actually funny and interesting being the main contenders, but also Patrick is not actually as insufferable in this episode. He's a jerkwad, absolutely, but they play it up to an actually comedic effect. And also maybe it helps that Patrick actually reflected on his behavior. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's get into the nitty-gritty of this thing.

This episode gets right into it with the Minister knocking on Patrick's rock and Patrick immediately freaking out for reasons unknown. And then we cut to SpongeBob and Gary, which you already know what I'm gonna say about that, and this episode doesn't let up in the plot for a second as Patrick immediately bursts through the TV. Now that's what I call getting an episode rolling! And I love that Patrick assumes the Minister is from the library and knows about his overdue books. Patrick even getting books from the library is funny in itself. It's also kind of funny to me that we have this library mix-up because I myself am going to the library later today to return some books. They're not overdue though lol. Anyway, I like how Patrick immediately starts burning books including a How To Read book, like what is this, Fahrenheit 451? And I thought it was funny how the real horror of jail is the "small portion meals" for Patrick. I just wrote so much about less than a minute of this episode, oh boy. But it's a really funny set up that gets me interested and hooked immediately. Kind of feels like "That's No Lady" or "I'm With Stupid". Except one of those goes on to be a pretty good episode, while the other does...not.

The comedy tones down a bit as we get some exposition, which isn't a norm in SpongeBob SquarePants, but it makes sense for this episode as the whole plot is that Patrick is royalty, and we need some kind of reasoning for that. Another thing I like about this set up is that Patrick doesn't start acting like a jerk for no reason, unlike some episodes (*cough cough* this episode's sister *cough*). What SpongeBob says about Patrick being able to get anything he wants has a predictable yet entertaining effect as Patrick starts to abuse his lowkey non-existent power (I mean Patrick's just royalty in name only. How did it take this long to say he was royalty? What about his clearly alive parents? Though I guess in this episode's sister episode they did make a joke about Patrick thinking he was an orphan so who knows. Maybe that was a set up for this episode lmao). Anyway, I have questions about how this royalty thing works if King Neptune exists? You already know I overthink SpongeBob SquarePants, it's what I do.

Anyway, starting with the scene at the Krusty Krab, we see Patrick become more and more of a jerk as he gains an entitled attitude. There's something about Bill Fagerbakke's delivery in Patrick's jerk moments that make those moments either super humorous or super annoying. I'm not sure what it is, but whatever it is, that's talent right there. Also the subtle joke about Mr. Krabs trying to marry Pearl off is so bad yet funny. And then I love how Mr. Krabs is all about capitalism, but anti-monarchy lmao. You already know I love to make things more complicated than they are, just roll with it. And then Patrick starts literally taking things from people, which is an a-hole move to be sure, but I don't find myself very annoyed by it. I'm trying to figure out and articulate what exactly separates Patrick's behavior in this episode from "Driven to Tears", and I can't seem to put my finger on it. Maybe it's because in that episode he was saying all sorts of slick comments to one character in particular, not to mention that character being his supposed best friend that he began the episode supporting, and in this episode his jerkish behavior is towards everyone he comes across, and it's only at the climax of the whole thing that he's a real jerk to SpongeBob rather than just brusque. That's the explanation I'm going with, anyway. It also helps immensely that in some of these jerk moments Patrick is pretty amusing or funny. Like I love the delivery on "was my bestest friend lying to me?" and I thought the "Life isn't fair, pal. Get used to it" bit was funny.

Then Patrick does his worst action yet, steal a comic book collection someone had been working towards their whole life, and we see a montage of Patrick abusing his power. Even though SpongeBob has concerns, he's still there to support his best buddy, which is very in-character. Also I liked how the montage ended with that TV bit, I thought that was entertaining. And then we cut to Squidward, who we hadn't seen any of yet, whose entrance is going to shake this episode up a bit. And by that I mean get a new part of the plot moving, change up some dynamics, not make anything worse. And Squidward is just hilarious here, particularly once his house is moved and he reacts to that. And then Squidward pulls a fantastic PG version of the French Revolution (kidding! kidding. only because it was not toppling the monarchy but toppling the king.) by galvanizing all the people who are being forced by Patrick into doing all this stuff for him. I love Squidward's excitement in seeing people start to agree with him. And I kind of love that this episode has a bit of a role reversal with us rooting for Squidward with no caveats at all. I mean, at the end of the day I root for SpongeBob 99% of the time, so it's not exactly a role reversal since I don't actually root for Patrick all that much (since he doesn't typically have goals in an episode, more a supporting role). Anyway, I love how completely done Squidward is with this whole situation. The part where SpongeBob tries to get him to sign a treaty is hilarious.

And then we get to probably the best bit of the episode, where Patrick begins legitimately losing it. I love how even SpongeBob has to jump ship at this point. And although he doesn't yell at Patrick or anything, I do like that SpongeBob calls him out as well as reminds Patrick that he has his own life to get back to. And then once SpongeBob leaves Patrick starts really losing it. The mirror scene is great and very unexpected for a show like SpongeBob SquarePants. Again, we all love the comedy, but sometimes I think no one talks about the actually good writing. And yes, a mirror is one of the most basic symbolism things you can use, but I can still praise it when it's done well, can't I? And then it is at this point that Patrick realizes that he's become a horrible person, and runs to give the crown back to the Minister.

Here, we have one of my favorite endings, for reasons you can probably guess. Because turns out Patrick isn't royalty after all anyway. You know who is? The one, the only, Gary the Snail. That's right, my boy is royalty! And I love the very end of the episode, where he gets his crown, and looks satisfied. As he should. As he should.

"Rule of Dumb" is a really great episode, in my opinion. I've already explained at length why I don't find anything to be very annoying in this episode, and why I find it to be pretty funny and well-written. It doesn't have the "wow" factor that would push it into "Amazing", but it's definitely a worthy contender for my "Great" tier.

Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.3/10
Click to expand...
this episode is defiantly better than driven to tears yeah. great review!
 
Very good episode. 8/10.
 
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BOO!
  1. Have You Seen This Snail? (♾/10)
  2. Dunces And Dragons (30/10)
  3. Krusty Towers (20/10)
  4. Patrick Smartpants (15/10)
  5. Wishing You Well (14.5/10)
  6. Fear Of A Krabby Patty (10/10)
  7. Skill Crane (10/10)
  8. Bummer Vacation (10/10)
  9. Ghost Host (10/10)
  10. Whale Of A Birthday (10/10)
  11. Hocus Pocus (10/10)
  12. The Lost Mattress (10/10)
  13. That's No Lady (10/10)
  14. New Leaf (10/10)
  15. Selling Out (9.5/10)
  16. Shell Of A Man (9.5/10)
  17. MM&BBVI: TMP (9.5/10)
  18. Krabs Vs Plankton (9/10)
  19. Enemy-In-Law (9/10)
  20. Once Bitten (9/10)
  21. Mrs. Puff You're Fired (8.5/10)
  22. Karate Island (8.5/10)
  23. Chimps Ahoy (7.5/10)
  24. Squidtastic Voyage (6.5/10)
  25. Squidbob TentaclePants (6.5/10)
  26. Funny Pants (6/10)
  27. Wigstruck (5.5/10)
  28. Rule Of Dumb (3/10)
  29. Good Neighbors (2.5/10)
  30. Driven To Tears (1.5/10)
  31. All That Glitters (1.5/10)
  32. The Thing (1/10)
 
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